Sunday, December 16, 2012

NPR Puzzle 12/16/12 - Looking Through Rose-Colored Glasses?

Name a two-word geographical location. Remove the first letter. Move one
of the other letters to the front of what's left. This will result in a
single word. And this word names what you are most likely looking
through when you see that geographical location. What is it?

This is one of the puzzles that can, conceivably, be solved backwards.

Start with something you look through, remove the first letter and place it elsewhere in the word, add a new letter to the beginning of the letter string, split that into two and you get a geographical location.

TV producer Rand Jennings solves the
problem of his boss-from-hell, Marcy, when he sees a way to mess with Marcy’s
reality TV show, The Fishbowl.
It’ll drive her crazy if he selects genuinely talented “Fish” who’ll treat the
game as more than trash-talking in skimpy swimwear. At the end of the season,
Rand will have written a winning screenplay he’ll pitch as “The Devil Wears Prada gets Gaslighted.”

He casts his first ringer, a confident
bartender from South Philadelphia, not realizing that Lissa-the-bartender is
actually her twin, Libby-the-law-student. When Libby’s summer law job
evaporates in the bad economy, and a certain cute producer kisses her, she
agrees to spend the summer locked in a stage set decorated like a fish tank.

As their relationship deepens despite the
show, Libby’s lies and Rand’s deceptions threaten any chance they have to be a
real couple. Set against the humorous backdrop of a tasteless reality TV show, Love in Reality is the sexy story of how
falling in love forces Rand and Libby to be honest with themselves and each
other.

Clearly it has nothing to do with this blog, so no one has to buy it. If you're interested, though, there are "read now" buttons at the Harmony Road Press website. And it costs nothing to download a sample, just to see if I can write.

For what it's worth, none of these photos is near or of the geographical location in the puzzle. Enjoy!

Time for

This is where we ask you how many entries you think NPR will get for the
challenge above. If you want to win, leave a comment with your guess
for the range of entries NPR will receive. First come first served, so
read existing comments before you guess. Or skip the comments and send
an email with your pick to Magdalen (at) Crosswordman (dot) com. Ross
and I guess last, just before we publish the Thursday post. After the
Thursday post is up, the entries are closed. The winner gets a puzzle
book of our choosing.

There were over 2,800 entries for last week's puzzle, and Jan won--with the last pick registered. In fact, her pick came in so late, I'd already written Thursday's post and scheduled it for publication. But that's still legal. So, Jan, you may have a puzzle book or a donation to the Red Cross. Your choice. Contact me at Magdalen >at< CrosswordMan.com and let me know your preference and, if needed, your mailing address.

You--yes, you!--can win either a puzzle book or the warm glow of satisfaction
knowing you're a generous person who caused a contribution to the Red
Cross's fund for Superstorm Sandy victims. Guess the range for this
week's puzzle, and good luck!

Our tie-break rule: In the event
that a single round number is announced with a qualifier such as
"about" or "around" (e.g., "We received around 1,200 entries."), AND two
separate people picked the ranges of numbers just before and just after
that round number, the prize will be
awarded to whichever
entrant had not already won
a prize, or in the event that
both entrants had won a
prize already or neither had,
then to the earlier of the
two entries on the
famous judicial principle of
"First Come First Serve,"
(or in technical legal jargon,
"You Snooze, You Lose"). As of July 2012, this rule is officially no longer obsolete (and also I just like having fine print).

I had the right answer until I tried Magdalen's bassakward approach and confused myself beyond help.I am not sure what Will really intends by the answer, but my feeling is that the feature was, for the majority of history, most commonly "viewed" through lyin' eyes.